So having being put into bat, we sent in our openers CP and NA; with CS on the sidelines watching our every move and providing guidance.
Batting First
1st Over - Bowled by a woman
CP managed to take a single on the 1st ball and put our main batsman NA on strike, we collected around 15 runs from the 1st over, all thanks to CP's single and some power hitting by NA.
2nd till 5th Over
We can retire our woman player after the 1st over is bowled, so coming back to the pavilion accompanied a huge round of applause was CP. Next up was UE, he and NA has an amazing time in between and batted on till the 4th over. We lost UE in the 4th over and in came JT he took a few balls to settle down, CC was hoping that JT would perform well as he had put in a good word for him to CS. After a few hiccups we managed to reach a competitive score of 61 for the loss of 3 wickets in 5 overs. JT's performance was average and that's putting it very mildly.
Now Bowling
1st Over by CP
She had received a lot of inputs from CS on Saturday, and now was the time to follow-up on them. CP did a fine job at keeping the woman batsman on strike for 3 balls and conceding a couple of wide deliveries. For the remaining three balls Team Two could put up a score of 10 runs at the end of the 1st over.
2nd over by TT
After going through a disastrous time in the previous edition of the cricket league, it was time to make things right. The 1st ball was lofted to long-on where RR was fielding, some sloppy fielding yielded 2 runs. This prompted UE to swap places with RR, 2nd ball was once again lofted to long-on, and UE made the catch look easy; his fielding change and TT's bowling were vindicated. 3rd ball was once again lofted to long-on and another catch by UE, this was turning into a dream spell for TT. The rest of the three went for 8 runs, a boundary included.
3rd and 4th over by NA and CC
These two overs went well for Team Two and they were in the game, thanks to our fielding to a very large extent. NA bowled well, the batsmen playing and missing most of the times. The only wicket to fall was by a run-out, which was a pretty eventful one; the batsmen edged a ball to the keeper and it spun after it landed, being sloppy as ever TT, the keeper, misjudged the spin and the ball went past him. They easily completed the single and went for a risky second. Now TT had a conundrum whether to go for a direct hit or throw at the bowlers end to get a run-out. As he wasn't sure about either he ran towards the stumps with more than 11 people screaming, " throw the god-damned ball", and when he was about 3 feet from the stumps he threw the ball and it hit, it bloody damn hit. God saved the day and his ass.
The Final Over - 14 Runs to win
Don't know whether CC had a plan in his mind about who was going to bowl the 5th over. Me thinks that he went with NA because he bowled a pretty good line. So NA with the ball, bowling the 5th over. The first ball a swing and a miss both by the batsman and the keeper (TT), so they get a bye. Second ball once again a swing and a miss by both, another bye. So they need 12 runs off 4 balls, match is still in the balance and everyone is pissed at the keeper. 3rd ball another swing, a nick and it lands just short of the keeper, but this time the keeper pockets it safely and no run given.
Final 3 balls and 12 runs to get, the pressure in on the batsmen to score and thankfully they couldn't. To everyone's bewilderment and ours included we won, we achieved our lofty goal. CS was ecstatic, however, he had to leave due to work commitments along with MIS. Congratulating the team for a very good performance and reminding us to improve our fielding for the next match which was against our old team-mate, the captain of 'Credit in a Mess' team.
PS : CC was given some more inputs for the next match, firstly that JT couldn't judge the bounce well, so to send him lower down the order and secondly to try out UE as a bowling option and if he bowls well not to give TT a bowl in the next match.
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